Team member spotlight: Hayden Erickson

Hayden Erickson, Software Engineer

Welcome to Highway’s “Meet the Team” series. In each spotlight post, you’ll get to know a different member of our team. For our first post in the series, we’re excited to spotlight the newest member of our team, Hayden. 

From Home Depot to Highway Benefits, Hayden Erickson is a seasoned software engineer who’s been passionate about platform development, machine learning, and building new things (including light sabers!) for many years. Get to know Hayden–the engineer, the traveler, and the musician–a little bit better from his interview with the team.    

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How did you hear about Highway Benefits? 

Through my friend Josh who works there. We became friends working together at The Home Depot where we were on the same team in IT called platform operations where we helped run and manage the application platform called pivotal cloud foundry that other app teams used to host their services, API’s, and applications. 

Tell us more about your role? 

I’m a software engineer which means I’m responsible for creating the applications, APIs, and services that perform useful functions for the company. For example, working on features that make it easier to onboard new customers as we grow.

Why did you decide to join the Highway team? 

It was an exciting new opportunity and I wanted to work with Josh again. I am excited about working here because it’s a brand new product that we get to create and it’s helping tons of people pay off their student loans which resonates with me since I have them too. 

How would you describe the culture at Highway? 

Motivating and delightfully realistic. We’re accomplishing big goals, but doing it in a sustainable and fun way. 

What excites you the most about working at Highway? 

I really love creating new things and this product is brand new. We get to make all the decisions about how things will work and solve interesting and challenging technical problems. We get to watch as the company grows how it changes and evolves into something more. 

How would you describe your day to day?  

For now it’s mostly creating software to add new features and functionality to our product, whether it’s giving customers the ability to see some new information on the dashboard that might help them with taxes or automating a previously manual process. 

What are your hobbies outside of work? 

Currently travel is a big one! I’ve been to Hawaii and Guatemala over the past year and that was my first time out of the country. I also love to build artistic pieces that incorporate technology in some way. For instance I made my own lightsaber using an arduino, some lights, and my 3d printer. I also once made a light board that uses the same hardware, but is more of an aesthetic piece. Another love of mine is making music. I love collaborating with people because once they hear a full song that they’re a part of making, they get excited and have something they can always look back on and be proud of. 

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We’re hiring! Come work with Hayden and our team at Highway Benefits. Check out our latest open roles here.